YouTube Sensation Annoying Orange Heading to the Networks

The iconic Annoying Orange that became a YouTube sensation with more than 565 million views will be arriving on television in the near future

The Collective will finance six 30-minute episodes with Tom Sheppard (Pinky and the Brain) writing and Shrek 2‘s Conrad Vernon executive producing. No word on which network will pick it up. Annoying Orange is the eighth most subscribed YouTube channel combined with more than 1.7 million subscribers. Orange isn’t the first YouTube sensation to cross over to TV. Lucas Cruikshank’s Fred, a series concerning a six year old with anger issues, premiered on Nickelodeon, drawing 7.6 million viewers, and a sequel is in the works.

Orange’s creator Dane Boedigheimer told Mashable that the six episodes will remain similar to the YouTube series with the same main characters and voices actors: Orange, Pear, Passion Fruit, Grandpa Lemon, Grapefruit, Midget Apple, and Marshmallow.

A human will come into the picture as a fruit cart vendor and interact with the main characters as well as new characters. Since the characters are on a fruit cart, they can travel anywhere in time or location. Boedigheimer suggests locations can be space, prehistoric or Canada.

Boedigheimer guarantees that the premise of the original series will stay intact. The Annoying Orange will remain annoying. The creator is excited about the challenge of the transition. With such a huge following online, it will be interesting to being able to create a TV show that works in tandem with the web series. “You could do so many things with cross promotion and driving traffic to each medium. It’s exciting!”